Dongting Lake

Where is Dongting Lake?

Countries on its shores: China.

Middle of the lake: 29.31° N, 112.95° E

The story behind it

Normally Dongting Lake covers about 2 820 km². But it works like a giant overflow basin for the Yangtze River. When the summer floods arrive, river water pours in, and from July to September the lake can spread out to as much as 20 000 km². Rivers such as the Xiang, the Zi, the Yuan and the Li also bring water, and the lake drains back into the Yangtze. Long ago Dongting was the largest freshwater lake in China. People then turned parts of it into farmland, so today it is only the second largest, after Poyang Lake. Its name means “Grotto Court”. A legend says dragon-boat racing began here, when people rowed out to search for the poet Qu Yuan. Rare Yangtze finless porpoises swim in the lake, and many migratory birds spend the winter on its wetlands. In the city of Yueyang stands the famous old Yueyang Tower.

Find it on the globe

Dongting Lake is there as a small blue dot with its name, right on the water. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.

It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.